Thursday, January 7, 2010

Maura's Obligatory Self-Introduction Post

So the other night I was up late job hunting before I went to sleep, and that night I had a dream. It was Christmas, and I was unwrapping a present, which turned out to be the game of Life. I opened it to discover that it wasn't exactly the game I played as a kid. Normally you travel across America in your minivan collecting children, right? But my game board had countries from all over the world and famous landmarks and cool places that I would love to see.

And that's what this journal is about. That's what I want my life to be about.
I graduated last June from Portland State University in Oregon with my BA in Japanese and a Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL, I'm not typing all that ever again, thanks) Certificate. It's been my goal for a long time to travel to Japan as an English teacher and become fluent in Japanese. Or as fluent as realistically possible for someone who started learning the language at the linguistically old age of 15. Someday I think I'd like to go into interpretation or translation. I have some experience with them both, and I like them a lot.

Before that, I want to teach in Japan and possibly some other countries as well. So the point of this journal is to document the process of finding a teaching job in Japan, and my experiences living overseas. I'd also like it to be a way for my friends and family to keep in touch with me, wherever I am.

I'm going to warn you now, though, I love sewing and reading and I am not going to be able to resist blogging about those topics as well. So, for whatever reason you may have to follow this blog, I hope you enjoy it! よろしくね。